Half Past Noon
by twenty-one hax
Summary: AU. There's Hayner's group, and Axel's group, and Roxas is caught in between. If only he could get them to stop fighting! Slash: a bunch of Roxas pairings, with a few others.


"Hey, Roxas," my friend Hayner called out to me as I was walking to my locker in between classes. I stopped walking and allowed him to catch up. "Hey, you wanna play blitzball with me and the gang after school today?"

"Nah, I can't," I muttered as I started walking again, now with Hayner by my side.

"Why not?" Hayner asked quickly, as if he'd just _expected_ me to say no. Which, I really couldn't blame him if he did.

"I…I've got a big math project to complete…"

"You can just tell me that you've got other plans with Axel after school," Hayner said, trying to mask the disappointment in his voice.

"Don't just assume things, Hayner," I replied, arriving at my locker. Hayner gave me this _look_ before continuing down the hall.

Sighing, I switched out the books I didn't need in my locker before scuttling over to my next class.

It's always been this big _feud_. Axel and his friends were kind of gothic, drama geeks, while Hayner and his friends were preppy and athletic. The two groups _hate_ each other. They absolutely despise each other. And I really don't know why, because I just so happen to be friends with all of them. But, that's really the problem; both groups are always fighting over me and making me feel guilty for hanging out with the other group.

But, what can I say? I love them both, and despite my many efforts to change it, I've come to accept the fact that they'll always be enemies.

My next class, science, and the last class of the day, happened to be with Demyx, one of Axel's friends. Taking my seat diagonally behind Demyx, I took out my book and started on the work that was written on the board.

Fortunately, the teacher of this class assigns a lot of labs, as she did today, so Demyx and I immediately partnered and did none of the work (like every lab).

"So, what's cookin', good-lookin'?" Demyx asked as he took the seat in front of me, sitting in it backwards to face me.

"Nothing," I sighed, doodling on the paper that was supposed to be our lab.

"Doesn't look like nothing," Demyx replied as he crossed his arms on my desk, looking up at me. "What's wrong?"

"Really, it's nothing," I said, smiling reassuringly at the blonde. "So, where is Axel taking us today? He didn't tell me, just to meet him after school."

"Oh, we're going over to Axel's first," Demyx said. "Then over to Xehanort's for some party Axel was ranting about."

"Hm, that's cool," I responded, sketching Demyx; I needed to practice drawing faces from the angle his was in. But, of course, once Demyx realized what I was drawing, he started moving around and making stupid faces.

Laughing lightly, we just talked until the bell rang, before making our way out of the class room and to our lockers, then our usual spot.

Once we got there, a few people were already there – Axel, Marluxia, Leon, and Cloud.

"Hey guys!" Demyx said brightly as we approached our tree at the back of the school.

"Hey, Dem," Axel replied, pulling Demyx into a headlock and messing up his hair.

As Demyx and Axel wrestled around, someone put their hands over my eyes, as if to say, "Guess who?" Judging by what I saw of the pale, thin hands, I guessed, "Naminé?"

The girl giggled before showing herself. "Yup!"

"Well, hello," I said with a smile, before hugging her.

She sighed, wrapping her arms around my neck and putting almost all of her weight on me (which really wasn't that much). "Today was such a long day."

"Aw, did my pookie-kins have to suffer through a bunch of tests, or something?" I asked, my arms around her waist.

Now, with Naminé and I – it's not like we were dating or anything, we've just been friends since grade school. Besides, Naminé was a proud lipstick lesbian.

"No, luckily," she said happily, drawing away. "It was just really dull."

She brushed her hands against her frilly white Lolita dress, her crystalline blue eyes following something behind me all of a sudden.

My eyes following hers, I saw Kairi, a girl from Hayner's group, walking past us, a little way away. Looking back at Naminé, I noticed her following Kairi's every move.

"Ah, what's this?" I asked, grinning as her eyes snapped back to mine. "Do I detect a little crushy-wushy of my dear Nami?"

Naminé's face went pink. "No! What are you talking about? Like I'd ever go for _Kairi_."

"And how do you know who I was referring to? There are plenty of people walking behind me…"

Naminé sighed, shrugging. "Fine. I just think she's pretty."

I smiled, putting my arm around her shoulders. "I bet I can get you two together in a week, tops."

Naminé's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Really, really."

"Ah, Roxy!" Naminé threw her arms around my neck and legs around my waist. "You're the best friend in the whole wide world!"

I laughed, hugging her.

"Break it up, break it up," Axel said, nudging me. "Everyone's here, let's go."

After putting Naminé down, I looked to Axel.

"Hustle, hustle!" he said, shooing everyone to the gap in the school's fence that we always use to leave.

The walks to the different places we went were rather chaotic. We usually had our entire group together (lest someone was sick or not in the mood to come), so that amounted to twelve people.

I mean, just imagine a group of a dozen people walking down a skinny sidewalk. Add everyone moving around to talk to everyone else, and everyone pushing and…it's just really hectic.

"Roxas."

I looked up at Riku, who'd fallen in step with me near the end of the group. "Hey, what's up?"

"Oh, nothing really," Riku replied, looking over at a car passing us by on the street. He looked down at the ground a little uncharacteristically awkwardly, before looking back at me. "Um, I was just wondering…if you'd like to go out with me."

I was completely taken aback. Riku and I had never really been very buddy-buddy with each other, or anything, and it was just plain unexpected. I decided to play it safe.

"Like, on a date, or…?"

"No, like, I want to be your boyfriend…"

It looked like Riku had mustered up a lot of courage to say this to me. And, I really can't say that I disliked the idea of his proposition, and I'd hate to turn him down. "Yeah, sure…I'd like that."

"Really?" Riku's face lit up, before he smirked. "You won't regret it."

"I better not," I laughed.

Riku smiled, before lacing his fingers with mine. Somehow, it caught me by surprise, but I quickly recovered and gently held his hand tighter.

Riku and I talked the rest of the way there. It's not like Riku and I had never talked before; we knew each other okay. But we had always just known each other more through the rest of the group, rather than really directly.

But anyway, what I was trying to say was that, as Riku and I talked, it was way more personal. I found myself starting to like him like I'd never really had a chance to before.

We arrived at Axel's place, and stumbled in and right down to his basement. We long abandoned trying to cram the whole gang into Axel's room, so his parents allowed us to clear out the basement and basically do whatever we wanted – not that there was anything in there to begin with, aside from like, two boxes.

We'd actually managed to get carpet, a couch, and a fridge down here, along with a few crappy chairs and the awesome-est, mushiest bean bag chair _ever_ that we got from Axel's neighbor because their kid had "grown out of it" or something.

I looked to said awesome bean bag chair, but it was somehow already taken by Yuffie. The couch was only occupied by Axel, so I made my way over. Riku sat down first, before looking up at me and patting his lap invitingly.

Smiling, I sat down on his lap, snuggling into his chest.

"So, Roxas," Riku said as he moved his hand slowly through my hair. "How have you been doing lately? Tell me everything about you."

I sighed happily, closing my eyes and leaning into Riku's touch. "There's nothing to tell. I'm just a plain old high schooler…"

"How fascinating. Tell me more."

I smacked Riku playfully. "Shush. Tell me about your life, if you're so much more interesting."

"Well…hm…" Riku looked around, thinking.

I smirked. "See! You can't think of anything either, Mr. Fascinating."

Riku pouted. "But you put me on the spot. It was a lot of pressure…"

"Yeah, sure," I laughed.

From then, we all just talked and goofed off. Leon and Cloud fought over the bean bag chair until Cloud actually flipped the chair with Leon in it, Yuffie and Naminé chased each other around the room, Paine and Fujin made out in a corner, and before we knew it, it was time to go to Xehanort's.

Xehanort was a man Axel knew from work. He threw a bunch of parties, and he usually threw them pretty far. A lot of people came, and just…general craziness usually ensued.

Also, conveniently, Xehanort's house just happened to be a few blocks from Axel's.

So, the twelve of us ambled our way out of his house and back onto the sidewalk. The walk there was rather uneventful – Riku and I held hands the way there, and exchanged a few words, but otherwise, nothing.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Axel said suavely as we made our way to his coworker's house. "We have arrived."

He bowed us into the house. A good amount of people were already there, and music was playing and all that good stuff. The group parted ways to go off and do their own thing. I myself split up with Riku to wander over to where Naminé was, and I can't say that it wasn't nice to finally have my own breathing room away from him.

"Hey, Nami," I said, coming up to her. "Are you looking for someone?"

"Oh, no," she responded, taking her eyes off the crowd and turning to me. "Just looking at everyone."

"Yeah…hey, if you—"

I was cut off by Axel grabbing my arm. "Hey, Rox. Can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Oh," I glanced up at him, before turning back to Naminé. "Excuse me."

Naminé nodded, and I let Axel drag me over to the staircase.

"Where're we going?" I asked.

"Upstairs," Axel rolled his eyes. His grip on my arm tightened. "Keep your pants on."

Scoffing, I just following Axel as we went upstairs. He pulled me into the first room and quickly shut the door. No one ever went upstairs during these parties, so the whole floor was totally deserted. I felt a little awkward, and was anxious about what Axel had to tell me.

"Roxy, you know, I've been thinking…" Axel made his way over to the bed, and paused, looking at it, before sitting down. "Thinking a lot. And…I've come to the conclusion that…"

He paused again. He patted the space next to him on the bed. "C'mere."

I slowly walked over to the bed and plopped down next to Axel. He looked at me, and put a hand to my neck before leaning in and pressing his lips to mine.

My eyes widened in shock. My immediate reaction was to think, 'oh shit, what about Riku!', but that thought faded as I slowly deepened the kiss with Axel.

He gently pushed me back onto the bed, and I just went with it. But then I suddenly heard a small noise coming from the side.

"Is this the—"

Breaking away from Axel, I looked to the door, to see a very startled looking Hayner, staring at us with his mouth open.

"Roxas…?" he said in disbelief. "I…you said…"

"Hayner, don't be mad—" I pleaded quietly.

"Who cares what he thinks?" Axel scoffed.

Hayner backed out of the room and left down the hall. I shoved Axel's face away from me and said, "_I_ do!"

Making my way down the hall, I easily caught up with Hayner. "Hayn, please, I'm not—"

"Roxas, just–" Hayner stopped and turned to me. "I don't _care_ what you do, or _who_ you do it with, just don't _lie_ about it!"

"I didn't lie! What're talking about?"

Hayner put on a stupid mocking voice, "Oh, I have to do a _math project_ after school today!"

"What? How the fuck to do know I was lying? I had ample time to have done a math project before I came here!"

"But you didn't, did you? You hung out with your little _faggy_ friends," Hayner spat, gesturing to Axel who had just moseyed out of the room.

"Hey, I resent that," Axel muttered, though not really looking like he cared.

I pushed Hayner up to the nearest wall. "Don't you _ever_ say something like that about my friends."

Hayner held up his hands in a backing off gesture, before pushing past me and striding down the stairs. I quickly followed him to the front door.

"Why are you being so freaked out about this?" I asked, trailing behind him to the front yard. "Is it really that hard for you to accept? You haven't even heard my side of the story."

He spun around to face me, and slowly walked up to me. "_Yes,_ Roxas, it _is_ that hard for me to accept. And do you want to know _why_?"

With each step he took, I took a step back.

"Because I've been pining after you for god _knows_ how long, never considering any slight possibility that you may return my feelings. And now, all of a sudden, I find out that you're going out with that _nobody_?"

I wanted to say something in Axel's defense, but Hayner now had me backed up against the front door (because we hadn't walked out very far to begin with), his body pressed up against mine.

I was also totally floored. _Three_ people in _one_ fucking day had expressed their affection for me. What the fuck! How was I supposed to choose, or even react?

Looking up at Hayner, I just stayed silent. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't do anything.

Hayner just sighed and pecked me chastely on the lips, before turning around and walking away. Not wanting to watch him and/or sulk in the front yard, I slipped back into the house. Immediately finding it way too stifling, I shuffled out to the backyard and took a seat on the chair swing.

I already knew it probably wouldn't work between me and Riku. Riku's been known for hopping from one person to the next, and I just didn't think about it when I said yes to him. I was hoping maybe he'd want to settle down with me…but it was a fat chance, and now there's Axel and Hayner to deal with.

Axel…Axel was cool. Out of the two groups, I think I'd have to say that Axel's been the closest to me. We'd been really good friends for a very long time, but…I wasn't sure if that's what it took for us to start a relationship.

And I didn't even want to think about Hayner. I'd never ever thought of him like that, and I knew I couldn't start now. But I felt awful, since he seemed to be pretty depressed about catching me and Axel…

Sighing, I closed my eyes and tilted my head back. I wish it all could just work itself out…

--

**A/N**: Yes, I know, three people is unreal…but it all contributes to the plot. :D


End file.
